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Oxymora add flavor to our words by incorporating a comical twist that listeners and readers are sure to catch. Oxymorons are extremely helpful in both spoken and written English due to how it adds a dramatic, and sometimes comedic, effect to a narrative or speech.
The Greek compound word ὀξύμωρον oksýmōron, which would piece to oxymoron literary definition Latin formation, does not seem to appear in any known Ancient Greek works prior to the formation of the Latin term. You may also see. The term is first recorded as latinized Greek oxymōrum, in c. Mechow, Deutsche Familiennamen preussischer Herkunft 1994p. Oxymorons is now more tout in print than oxymora, but you'll find the latter listed in most dictionaries. They can be used to create drama in order to engage a reader or listener, and they can also be used to add a theatrical effect that oxymoron literary definition either make a person laugh or ponder on a civil thought. Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health, Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is. To Entertain In some cases, people like to use oxymorons just to seem witty in front of their audience. Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is. I must be solo, only to be kind: Thus bad begins and worse remains behind. One function of literature is to make the readers enjoy reading. Coltheart in Moira Gatens, Alison Mackinnon eds.
Paradoxes usually defy intuition in that they combine seemingly contradictory concepts to hint at a deeper truth. Such a phrase shows that an object can be described in two different ways, allowing one to fully assess what is given.
Examples of Oxymoron in Sentences - In these lines from Act 1, Scene 1, Romeo tells his cousin Benvolio about his feelings for a woman named Rosamund who doesn't love him back: O heavy lightness, serious vanity, Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
Oxymoron Definition What is an oxymoron? It comes from the Greek words oskús, meaning sharp or keen, and morōs meaning dull or foolish. Oxymorons is now more common in print than oxymora, but you'll find the latter listed in most dictionaries. However, an oxymoron is more specific than a contradiction in terms: it must be crafted intentionally in order to suggest that two contradictory ideas go together because their unlikely combination reveals a deeper truth. The beauty of an oxymoron is that it deliberately combines two words or ideas that contradict one another, not simply to point out how those ideas don't fit, but for the purpose of showing that a contradiction actually does make sense or reveal a deeper meaning. To sum up, an oxymoron is not simply a contradiction in terms. A true oxymoron must be deliberately crafted in advance, with the goal of creating a rhetorical effect or revealing a deeper figurative meaning. Paradox It's also helpful to understand the relationship between oxymoron and Both have to do with using contradiction to reveal deeper truths, but they differ in an important way: an oxymoron is a device, while a paradox is an idea. A paradox is a concept that is simultaneously counterintuitive and truthful or revealing. Thus, an oxymoron might be a configuration of words that expresses a paradox, but the oxymoron is not, itself, the paradox. Antonyms Words that are antonyms have opposite meanings from one another. Some people mistake pairs of antonyms for oxymorons, but they are not the same. Instead, each pair of words describes a range of possible traits on a spectrum, such as from good to bad, or from light to dark. Oxymoron Examples Oxymoron in Prose Oxymorons can add color, humor, and meaning to language in all sorts of ways. Oxymorons are useful tools for authors and poets because they're based in contradiction, which makes them capable of describing complex or conflicting emotions. Oxymoron in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare used a great many oxymorons in his plays. Here's one more example from. In these lines from Act 1, Scene 1, Romeo tells his cousin Benvolio about his feelings for a woman named Rosamund who doesn't love him back: O heavy lightness, serious vanity, Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms! Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health, Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is! This love feel I, that feel no love in this. This cascade of oxymorons, placed one after the other, heightens the contrast between Romeo's idea of love and what he's actually experiencing. Oxymoron in Shakespeare's Macbeth The following oxymoron occurs repeatedly throughout. This first example is from the play's opening scene and it is part of a charm chanted by witches: Fair is foul, and foul is fair: Hover through the fog and filthy air. Oxymoron in Vladimir Nabokov's Ada Nabokov's novel Ada tells the story of Van and Ada, a sister and brother who meet as teenagers and fall in love, believing that they are cousins. In this example, Nabokov describes Ada, seen through Van's eyes, absorbed in one of her favorite activities: On those relentlessly hot July afternoons, Ada liked to sit on a cool piano stool of ivoried wood at a white-oilcloth'd table in the sunny music room, her favorite botanical atlas open before her, and copy out in color on creamy paper some singular flower... Or else she combined one species with another unrecorded but possible , introducing odd little changes and twists that seemed almost morbid in so young a girl so nakedly dressed. This example is similar to the lines above from Romeo and Juliet, in that both use the contradictory terms of an oxymoron to reflect the characters' experience of thwarted love. Oxymoron in Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls These lines from Chapter 7 of For Whom the Bell Tolls describe an encounter between Robert Jordan, a young American soldier fighting in the Spanish Civil War, and his lover María. The shackles of an old love straitened him, His honour rooted in dishonour stood, And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true. Some of the greatest truths lie in contradiction, and oxymoron is one of the best figures of speech for expressing contradiction. For example, as we covered above, Shakespeare used oxymorons to describe strong, opposing emotions that often occur together, and also to show how the friction between those two feelings—love and hate, or love and pain, for example—can coexist and shape characters' experiences. However, oxymorons aren't always so serious. Even so, Pope uses oxymoron to emphasize that people who are well-read are not necessarily original thinkers. Note: many of these examples are actually contradictions in terms and not actual oxymorons, but it's still a helpful resource if you pick and choose carefully.